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Lucifer started down the wide hallway, Crocs squeaking.
Gavin’s hand flexed on her. “Maybe you should stay here.”
“No,” she said immediately. “I need to see this.”
“There’s twenty of them,” he growled.
“And you won’t let any of them touch me. This is what we’ve been waiting for, and I know his voice. You need me, Gavin.”
“I do need you. I need you breathing.”
“And I will be.”
His eyes flicked to Blade. “One scratch and I’ll kill you.”
Blade inclined his head. Gavin approached Lucifer who ran his finger along a gleaming table and frowned.
“Fucking dusty. Unacceptable,” he muttered.
“Lucifer,” Gavin clipped.
“Right. This way.”
“You want the underworld? This is where you take it,” Gavin said under his breath to Angel who nodded.
Lyla and Blade followed in their wake. Blade had a knife the length of her forearm in his hand. A man who looked like a pirate paused in front of closed double doors with a silver cart that had two bottles of champagne and crystal flutes. Lucifer shooed him away and knocked on the door.
“Come.”
Lucifer gave them a shit-eating grin before he opened the door and rolled the cart inside. This was it. Sadist was in this room. Years of death, nightmares, and fear would be settled right here, right now. Her heart leaped into her throat as Gavin blithely walked in after Lucifer. No hesitation. She expected to hear gunshots, but there was nothing and that was worse. She moved forward, pulling against Blade’s grip on her arm. She wasn’t sure what she expected, but the sight that met her eyes took a few seconds to digest.
The room looked like an executive lounge with elegant furniture, a boardroom table, and a wet bar all in snowy white. But that was where normal stopped. Twenty men sat at the table, all in black suits and metal masks. Each mask was horrifying enough to induce nightmares whether it was a snarling animal or a demon. A wall of glass separated the men in suits from two men with ancient weapons fighting on a turf of sand. She caught a glimpse of an arena before the screaming tension in the room forced her to focus on the men at the table who were half standing, staring at Lucifer, Gavin, Eli, and Angel. Blade forced her to stop behind him in the doorway.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Pyre?” a man wearing a horrifying clown mask asked.
Gavin slammed his fist in the man’s face. There was the ping of metal and then the crunch of bone as the mask caved in. She saw a gush of blood slither down the man’s throat and heard a gasping breath as the man crashed to the ground and clawed at the mask with his legs kicking.
Another man leaped up from the table with a dagger in each hand. Blade widened his stance to conceal her. She leaned to the side, heart in her throat as Gavin eyed the man with a nonchalance that made her want to scream. He dodged the first swing and the second. On the third swipe, Gavin grabbed his wrist and reversed the knife. With a suddenness that stunned everyone, he hit the butt of the dagger, which lodged in the man’s chest. The man fell, gasping and twitching.
Four men converged on Gavin. She saw Eli and Angel engage with them before Blade shoved her back. A second later, a man barreled into him. She saw the whites of his eyes through a snarling rabbit mask before she saw a flash of silver and he slid to the ground in front of Blade. She pressed against Blade’s back to look into the room and saw Eli’s face and neck now splattered with red.
“You all know why I’m here,” Gavin said over the muted sound of the battle taking place in the sandy pit and the masked men’s last rattling breaths. “And I know why you’re here.”
In the arena, a man wielded a weapon she had only seen in medieval movies. It was a stick with a chain and metal ball with spikes attached. She grasped the back of Blade’s jacket as it imbedded into a man’s skull with a sickening thud.
The scene with Gavin was just as disturbing. The steady clip of his shoes as he circled his prey gave her goose bumps. Even though Gavin was clearly outnumbered, none of the men moved. They watched his progress silently.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” said a belligerent man wearing a wolf mask.
Gavin knocked the mask off his face and grabbed fistfuls of his suit. “I’m your fucking crime lord, bitch.”
Gavin’s fist flashed out and the man’s head kicked back. He landed on his ass and shook his head, dazed.
“Lucifer here was kind enough to let me know where you were meeting,” Gavin said with a politeness that clashed with the flashes of temper he was exhibiting. “Lucifer tells me there’s some debate on whether I’ve lost my touch since I claimed my wife. Let’s put it to the test, shall we?”
Gavin placed both hands on the table. Blood spread across white marble.
“I hear you had plans for my wife tonight.”
